This part of my page describes a lot of the greatest events that have occurred in the history of civilization. Some of them are great advances in the history of man, great medical or scientific discoveries for example. Others are disasters caused by man is inhumanity to man such as the thirty years war.
Many of the events in this part of the page are cultural milestones, famous events . And many events may not seem important to you at all : popular music or social custom may not seem to be as significant as revolutions and wars, but they are nevertheless useful pointers.
c. 5000 BC
SUMER, CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION .
Civilization was born more than seven thousand years ago between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. Here, within a broad and fertile valley was the settlement of sumer. The area on which it was built was later given the name of Mesopotamia, “ the land between the two rivers “ (now Iraq) . The name in time applied to the whole length of the valley in which other early civilizations were also destined to settle .
The Sumerians built huts, clustered together to form villages, domesticated animals to give milk and meat and skins for clothing, and grew wheat , barley and other crops . They still hunted, but now, for the first time, they no longer relied on hunting to keep alive. So they were able to live in one place without being forced to a nomadic life, like all others before them .
The Sumerians invented the first written language : a form of abbreviated picture language called cuneiform ( or wedge-shaped ) , written with reed pens on soft clay which was later baked . The invention of the wheel is also attributed to the Sumerians who must have been a most industrious and inventive people .